Tis The Season of Sap

Y'all, I'm sure I say this every year, but the sap falling from the giant tree in my front yard is out of control this year. Every year about this time I am more than ready to have someone chop down that dang Hackberry tree but there are always two things preventing me from doing it. One, the cost and two, it's the only large tree I have on my property and I'm convinced it helps with the utility bill in the summer by shading the house.  Maybe I'm wrong on that last point, who knows? At any rate, every year beginning in August and ending sometime in October (I think) I suffer through gallons of sap being dropped on my car and I hate it. 

This year I feel like the sap is worse than ever. Quite honestly, I probably feel this way every year in which case this year would be no exception. I wash my car two-three times per week at the Five Points Car Wash which is self serve and actually does a decent job. It's one of those car washes where you put the quarters in the machine and you can use the sprayer, brush, etc. I usually have to put two rounds of quarters in to get it sprayed, washed with the brush and sprayed off again. It's $1.25 for five minutes so for $2.50, I can get the sap off of my car for a few minutes and it feels oh so good when I do. 

Sometimes I will go to the Goo-Goo instead of washing it myself. I did that on Tuesday after work because after my car sat in the parking space on Sunday afternoon and all of Monday into Tuesday morning, there was so much sap on the car I could hardly see out the back windshield. This is not an exaggeration my friends. I did the double soap wash and it was worth it, although I feel certain I could have run it through another time for good measure. I also used the vacuum to clean out the leaves and gravel that had made its way into the floorboards of my car. The other bad thing about sap is that even when the leaves fall, they are covered in sap and so inevitably you will end up with a copious amount of leaves stuck to the bottom of your shoes. 

I also feel like the sap has a disgusting smell about it, but that could just be me and my overactive nose. The sap also penetrates the porch leaving a black reside on my chairs and the porch itself. There's absolutely no need in cleaning it right now because it will just be there again after a few days. So, I usually wait until the sap season is over before hosing down the porch and the scrubbing the chairs. The black residue also gets on the roof which really doesn't bother me as badly because it's not like people come by examining my roof, although if you are a visitor my home you may now. 

You may recall that last year I tried to combat the sap and the aphids with an order of live lady bugs. To be honest, I think that just made things worse, not better. I guess that's really all I have to say about sap. I'm just tired of it, ready for it to go, but sadly, that means all the leaves will be gone as well and I would prefer to enjoy the changing of the colors before all the leaves disappear. So, for now, I'll just deal with it and continue washing my car every other day. I'm sure the man who owns the Five Points Car Wash won't mind.